Stags 19 Morpeth Reivers 36

We started on Wednesday with a squad of 30 men, down to 14 by Thursday and managed 21 come kick off at Brinkburn on Saturday thanks to a delay in the bus pick up for a saga cruise ..

Davey Tighe, Mixie Parker, Graham Scott, Peter Wilkinson, Graham Franklin, Liam Larkin and Morgan Hamilton were not letting a weeks worth of sexual abstinence go to waste following the cancellation of the vets game. They duly pulled on their boots, hammered their studs in, applied Vulcan supports to every joint, vazzed up and told their wives not to expect any jobs to be done for the following week.

It was now the perfect blend of youth and experience as we took to the field with a few players playing out of position. We dominated possession and our set piece was edging a very big Morpeth pack throughout, very well martialled by Captain Tyo who had his best game of the season. The backline looked very sharp but were closed down very quickly by morpeths backs, who defended very well. Tighe, Beales, Jassy and Willis all running hard and passing very accurately.

Our tries came from Johnny Hunter, Javels Tighe with a trademark QBS (Quarter Back Sneak) leaving a few would be tacklers in his wake and finally and try of the game was very well finished in the corner from Liam Larkin after some excellent interplay from forwards and backs alike. Quinny had a mixed bag with his kicking out of hand but slotted a couple of beauties to convert two tries.

Biancos Meatball man of Steel was Imran who had an excellent game at openside, the first time the winger has ever played there and the vets Biancos meatball man of steel was little Cam who rolled back the years at No:8, carrying strongly, big tackling and just being a general pain. Blockhead also had an excellent game playing in the two row, second and front for the full 80 minutes.

Morpeth were good opposition, well drilled and aggressive with some explosive runners and three of their tries were individual scores, well finished but made easier by poor tackling from the lads. Add this to our lack of precision attack at times and not protecting the ball well enough in contact and at risk time and Morpeth left with the spoils.

Overall many more positives than negatives and a very productive and enjoyable afternoon of rugby. Let's hope some of the more youthful members of the club can draw some inspiration from not just the vets but the young lads that turn up week in week out and start to move the stags forward again.